Having lived in California for close to 10 years now, SommSelect Editorial Director David Lynch regularly sets Italian wine aside in favor of the “local” stuff—especially when it performs like this aromatic, woodsy Zinfandel from way up in Trinity County.
Many years ago, when I first moved from New York to California to take a job at San Francisco’s Quince Restaurant, most Californians assumed I was a Eurocentric wine snob with little interest in (or knowledge of) “local” produce. And they were correct. But, in my defense, I kept an open mind and embraced the greatness growing in my new backyard. One writer marveled at my newfound (and still abiding, by the way) love of California Chardonnay. I’ll take heritage Cabernets from producers like Mayacamas and Mount Eden any day. But one grape I struggled with was Zinfandel. Most of them were/are so rich, syrupy, and alcoholic I wrote off the whole category. Then I met Dr. Jerry Seps of Napa’s Storybook Mountain and he showed me that Zinfandel wines could have freshness, energy, and longevity. The same could be said for Andy Carini, a fellow Italophile (by way of garage-winemaking grandparents in the Midwest) who turned up at my door one day with some intriguing Zins from way up near Humboldt County. To me, his 2011 “Dubakella” Zinfandel, from a tiny, organically farmed, high-elevation site perched above the south fork of the Trinity River, is a game-changer: it is woodsy, brambly, and a little wild, as Zinfandel is wont to be, but without the excesses that make some such a chore. Now with some bottle age, it has developed a host of secondary aromas while maintaining that all-important freshness that makes you crave a second (and third) glass. Yes, I’d say it has a European sensibility. Old biases die hard. But it’s also an intriguing and delicious look at a relatively new California wine frontier—and a sheer pleasure to drink!
Trinity County is wedged between Humboldt and Shasta Counties in the northermost reaches of California, not far from the Oregon border. Thickly wooded and crisscrossed by rivers and streams, the area is only sparsely populated with vineyards, given the prevalence of another local cultivar (can you guess?) that is much more lucrative than wine grapes. Nevertheless, we’ve found some very serious wines from the Humboldt area to offer here on SommSelect (such as the Pinot Noirs of Joseph Jewell, which showcase the area’s cool microclimate). Andy Carini set up shop here in 2000, and while he has since sought out fruit from other, far-flung appellations in California, the wines he calls “Dubakella” (from a Wintu Indian word meaning “black rock”) are his signature bottlings. Today’s 2011 was the first vintage Carini produced from the one-acre Grel Ranch Vineyard in Hyampom, CA, which sits at an elevation of 1,450 feet on an old alluvial (i.e. gravelly) streambed.
One of the standout features of the 2011 “Dubakella” is that it behaves like a “cool-climate” red, which it is; this is not your typical modern-day Zinfandel (it’s a grape more readily associated with hotter climates) and it works very well because of that. In addition to its remote sourcing, the wine was fermented using whole grape clusters, a practice which lends backbone and also tends to marginally reduce alcohols—one of the big plusses here is the wine’s freshness and lack of heat. It was aged about 24 months in used French oak barrels and then spent another six months in tank before bottling. Since then, it hasn’t moved from Carini’s cellar in the booming wine metropolis of Hayfork, California.
In the glass, it’s a medium ruby moving to pink at the rim (showing its age but not yet bricking), with aromas of wild red and black berries, cherry, black plum, cranberry, underbrush, pepper, dried violets, lavender, and a more exotic spice note reminiscent of smoked paprika. Medium-bodied and brightly fruited on the palate, you might be fooled for a second into thinking you’ve got a fuller take on cru Beaujolais on your hands, or perhaps something Provençal (there’s a
garrigue-like note and some “purple flower” notes that take you there). As Carini has had these bottles stored on their sides in his cool cellar, some sediment has collected in the necks of some bottles, so plan on decanting this wine 15-20 minutes before serving in large Burgundy stems. It will unfold for many hours after opening and, while it is in its peak drinking window now, it still has gas left in the tank. Serve it at 60-65 degrees alongside the attached recipe for a plum-stuffed pork loin—the sweet/savory back-and-forth should be money with this unique California red!
— David Lynch
